Beeblebrox Company
The Beeblebrox Company is a film production group responsible for fanon Doctor Who featuring Laurence Klein, David Kalat, Neil Nadelman and Charlie Anders (née Kupperman). Its proprietor, Peter Fagan, has produced films under the name in three US locations: North Carolina, Connecticut and the San Francisco Bay Area. Their first feature, Dark Alliance, was made entirely in North Carolina. Theta-G was started in North Carolina and finished in Connecticut. The Prisoner and the Time Lord was a co-production with writer/director Joe Medina and the Legion of Rassilon fan club, based in San Jose California. Filmography Full cast features * Dark Alliance (1984) * Theta-G (1987) * The Prisoner and the Time Lord (2001) Short subjects * NCSU Mini-Con (1984) * Time Trap (1985) * The Doctor Meets Voltron (1985) * Resurrection of the Dayleks (1985) * The TARDIS Adventure (1988) * Temporary Exile (1989) Non-fiction * The Dillard Report (12 episodes, 1985-1988) * The Beeblebrox Incident (1986) History A band of strangers were united in the production of a short fan film on 16 June 1984, at a Doctor Who mini-con occupying a few rooms on the North Carolina State University campus. The Beeblebrox Company name was scrawled for the first time on a sheet of paper used for the end credits. The local fan club had a full-sized wooden Police Box on hand but the nascent film crew still needed a Time Lord. Almost on cue, a young man with a striking resemblance to Tom Baker strode out of a video room. Unfortunately, he was decked out in a pair of rather inconvenient track shorts. A few seconds later his brother, Laurence klein, emerged sporting a pair of scholarly tweed slacks and The Beeblebrox Company had its Doctor. Production Details Dark Alliance Dark Alliance was written by Peter Fagan and Zebulon Record reporter Cee Em Cartier; it premiered on the 25th of August, 1984. The story centers around The Grand Alliance of the 39th Century, a gathering of baddies in advance of the delegation seen in the BBC serial The Daleks' Masterplan. Daleks, Cybermen and others meet at a castle in the forests of Felis Catus, where local monarch Princess Felina matches wits with The Master. Cee Em's daughter Jenny played a very young Sarah Jane Smith and the pink-striped overalls she wore are famous. They were sewn in 1983 to match Sarah's outfit from the BBC serial The Hand of Fear and Elisabeth Sladen was charmed by the homage when she met the pair at a convention that summer. Later the actress dressed her own daughter in the same way and in recent years fan film producer Jennifer Adams Kelley has followed suit. Theta-G Script The four-part script Theta-G: Wave of Oscillation was completed in April 1985. The resulting feature premiered a couple of years later, on 25 July 1987. In the intervening time the story underwent a number of changes. Theta-G is set amid the final adventures of The Fourth Doctor and follows on from the events in the 1984 BBC serial Resurrection of the Daleks. In that story, the Supreme Dalek claims that duplicate humans have been placed in strategic positions on Earth. In the fan film script, the duplicates are identified as Autons and The Nestene Intelligence is held captive in a containment chamber aboard a Dalek ship. "Theta-G" was the electromagnetic wave that Daleks used to robotize prisoners, until the Netstene finds a way to do more than just robotize them. Production Dark Alliance is 34 minutes long; the Theta-G script called for 110 minutes of material. About 85% of it was produced in North Carolina; the rest of the work was completed by a second group in Connecticut. When an accident destroyed all the Dalek costumes, the script was informally reworked so that references to the Dalek forces were replaced by a Vardan legion. As the high-ranking Daleks never left their ship or met the lead actors, their scenes (and work on the miniature effects) were deferred. In Connecticut, the Dalek roles were expanded into the Vardan characters Overlord Sildon and his lieutenant, Augustus. Acting student Ilona Somogyi was cast as The Nestene Intelligence and the end of the story was reworked to allow her to visibly appear in mind communication with The Doctor. The reworked Dalek battle scenes introduced Vardan battle mecha, with kit-bashed miniature work courtesy the anime boom of the mid-80's. Post Production The footage of all four parts was strung together without Doctor Who-style credits under the title Theta-G: The Movie. The members of "Beeblebrox North" joined the Carolina cast for the premiere. The end credits play five minutes early, followed by the caption "We interrupt the credits to bring you the conclusion of this movie." Prior to the premiere, the first part of Theta-G: The Movie was submitted to two film competitions under the title Theta-G: Book One. An episodic version of Theta-G (with Doctor Who credits added and several scenes removed) was prepared and shown in 2000 at the Gallifrey One convention. The Prisoner and the Time Lord A Time Lord known only as Harlan and a young sci-fi fan called David stumble upon the present-day Village, where Number 54 risks her life to prove that escape is (and was) possible. Harlan brings his natural distaste for oppression to the struggle while David brings privileged knowledge of The Village: in his home dimension, The Village is a fictional place, from the TV series The Prisoner. By 1998, Joe Medina and Jamie Lawson had been had encountered a number of setbacks trying to get Joe's script off the ground. On one occasion, the custodian of the camera tape recorded a Grateful Dead concert over all all the footage they shot. Before production finished, the lead camera operator moved out of the area but by that time, PraT had become a Beeblebrox Company co-production. Before post production finished, Joe and Jamie moved out of the area themselves. The hour-long feature was completed with the help of telecommuting and the US Postal Service. Joe and Jamie joined Peter Fagan at a Gallifrey One convention for the premiere. The Prisoner and the Time Lord premiered on February 24, 2001. Editing came so close to the wire that Joe himself first viewed the final cut at the hotel prior to screening. DVDs of the feature (sans extras) were given to fan volunteers in the UK, US and Australia for distribution. Links * [http://www.beeblebroxcompany.org/ beeblebroxcompany.org] * Afterhell (Joe Medina) * All Day Entertainment (David Kalat) * Charlie Anders * The Legion of Rassilon * Neil Nadelman at Anime News Network Category:Film Production Groups